Personal Health Information Privacy Program

This Privacy Program explains how your personal health information may be used and disclosed. Please review it carefully

Purpose: The Blood Center collects certain personal health information when you donate blood. This information isnecessary for identification purposes, safeguarding the blood supply, recruitment, matching blood donorswith recipients, testing and follow-up activities, and other donation-related activities that may benecessary for medical purposes or required by law. Although The Blood Center is not a HIPAA coveredentity, we respect the confidentiality of your health information, subject to the necessary uses describedherein, and will protect the privacy of your information to the best of our ability and to the extent requiredby law.This program describes our privacy practices and explains how we use and maintain your healthinformation to ensure the adequacy and safety of the blood you so generously donate to patients in need.

How The Blood Center May Use Personal Health Information

We may use your personal health information for the following purposes and in the following ways:

To send you appointment reminders.

To schedule your next donation or to contact you with a request to donate blood.

To notify a volunteer donor chairperson (if you participate in a company campaign) for purposes of scheduling donations (i.e. name, blood type, phone number), or for contacting you if there is an urgent need for your blood type.

To provide information to a disaster relief agency, if you are involved in a disaster relief effort.

To prevent a serious threat to health or safety.

To share information with health care providers involved in your treatment. For example, we may share information about your test results with your physician, if you are an autologous donor (you are giving blood for your own use), you are giving blood for therapeutic treatment, or you are undergoing a therapeutic apheresis procedure.

To conduct internal operations, including, but not limited to, quality control, quality improvement, training, employee evaluations, attorneys and insurers for professional liability or risk management purposes, or licensing or accreditation.

To conduct business operations through business associates, for example, to install a new computer system requiring technicians to have access to records.

In the event you experience a medical emergency, we may notify a family member or other responsible person of the medical emergency and provide information necessary to make treatment decisions. For example, if you have an adverse reaction to a blood donation, we may need to explain what happened and instructions regarding your care to a person driving you home or to receive medical care.

Under limited circumstances, we may use and disclose medical information for research purposes. All research projects are subject to an approval process, and we generally ask for your written authorization before using your personal health information for research purposes.

As permitted or required by law. For example,

Texas law permits blood banks to share certain information for the safety of the blood supply and for public health activities, including, but not limited to, other blood banks, state agencies for donor safety, disease prevention, injury or disability, reporting deaths, reporting reactions, product problems, notification of recalls, and infectious disease control.

Law enforcement activities, for instance, in response to a court order or other legal process.

To military command authorities if you are a member of the armed forces or a member of a foreign military authority.

National security and intelligence activities.

Protection of the President, other authorized persons, or foreign heads of state, or to conduct special investigations.

Notifying the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), if you have consented to participate in the

NMDP.

Fundraising activities by The Blood Center, but such information will be limited to your name,

address, and phone number. You will have an opportunity to refuse to receive these

communications.

Informing you of a community need for additional blood and encouraging you to continue to be a

blood donor.

The Blood Center may electronically use or disclose your personal information for one or more of the ways or purposes above.

Your Authorization Is Required for Other Disclosures. Except as described above and as permitted or required by law, we will not use or disclose your personal health information unless you authorize us in writing to disclose the information for the purpose you authorize. You may revoke your authorization by written letter, which will be effective only after the date of your written revocation.

You Have Options Regarding Your Health Information. You may request special confidentiality protections regarding your personal health information by writtenletter; however, there may be some requests that we cannot accommodate.

Confidential Communications. You may request communications in a certain way (for example,telephone or email) or at a certain location, but you must specify how or where you wish to be contacted.

Copy of Personal Health Information Record. You may request in writing a copy of the recordcontaining your personal health information. We may require you to provide proof of identity and charge afee for copying, mailing and supplies.

Additional Data We CollectThe Blood Center collects additional data to operate effectively and provide you the best experiences withour services. You provide some of this data directly, such as when you create a Digital Donor account, orcontact us for customer service. We get some of it by recording how you interact with our services by, forexample, using technologies like cookies.The data we collect depends on the services and features you use, and includes the following:

Name and contact data. We collect your first and last name, email address, postal address, phone number, and other similar contact data.

Credentials. We collect passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for authentication and account access.

Demographic data. We collect data about you such as your age and gender.

Payment data. We collect data necessary to process your payment if you make a payment or financial donation, such as your payment instrument number (such as a credit card number).

Usage data. We collect data about how you interact with our services. This includes data, such as the features you use, the items you purchase from the Commit for Life Store, and the web pages you visit. This also includes data about your device and the network you use to connect to our services, including IP address, operating system, and web browser used.

How to Access and Control Your Personal DataYou can view or edit your personal data online within Digital Donor and/or Digital Coordinator. You canalso contact The Blood Center by using our Customer Service web form, email address, or phonenumber. We will respond to requests to within one regular business day.

Your Communications PreferencesYou can choose whether you wish to receive promotional communications from The Blood Center byemail, text, postal mail, and telephone. If you receive promotional email or text from us and would like toopt out, you can do so by following the directions in that message. You can also make choices about thereceipt of promotional email, text, postal mail, and telephone calls by signing into Digital Donor, whichallows you to update contact information and manage contact preferences. If you do not have a DigitalDonor account, you can manage your contact preferences by contacting Customer Service. Thesechoices do not apply to some communications that are part of certain required notification services, or toconfirmations or transaction receipts.

Our Use of CookiesThe Blood Center uses cookies (small text files placed on your device) to provide our services and helpcollect data. The text in a cookie often consists of a string of numbers and letters that uniquely identifiesyour computer, but it can contain other information as well. We use cookies for several purposes,including:

Sign-in and Authentication. When you sign into a site using your Digital Donor account, we store a unique ID number, and the time you signed in, in an encrypted cookie on your device. This cookie allows you to move from page to page within the site without having to sign in again on each page.

Analytics. In order to provide our services, we use cookies and other identifiers to gather usage and performance data. For example, we use cookies to count the number of unique visitors to a web page or service and to develop other statistics.

Security of Personal DataThe Blood Center is committed to protecting the security of your personal data. We use a variety ofsecurity technologies and procedures to help protect your personal data from unauthorized access, useor disclosure. For example, we store the personal data you provide on computer systems that havelimited access and are in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential data (such as a creditcard number or password) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption.

Changes to This Privacy ProgramThe Blood Center may change this Privacy Program, and these changes will be effective with regard toexisting health information, additional data, as well as any information we receive in the future.At your request, we will provide you with a printed copy of this Privacy Program.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy has been violated, you may file a complaint with The Blood Center on ourconfidential compliance and privacy hotline at 1(877) 874-8420. You will not be penalized or retaliatedagainst in any way for making a complaint to The Blood Center.

Contact

Send an email to privacy@giveblood.org if you wish to discuss a complaint, review your personal information collected, request corrections to that information, or if you have any questions about this Privacy Program. Written requests can be mailed to Privacy Program, Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, 1400 La Concha Lane, Houston, Texas 77054.

Blood Center News

I am an unashamed fan of Wonder Woman. Family members reminisced about how I used to wrap a towel around my neck and run around the house singing the “Woman Woman” theme song. (No, that wasn’t a typo. My ability to get song lyrics wrong was apparent even at the young ages of 3 and 4.)

I was excited last summer to meet Shelley and her daughter, Courtney. The two were full of laughter and fun when Shelley came into our office for a photo shoot. Shelley is one of our long-time dedicated donors. She’s got that kind of giving spirit, and we were thrilled to capture a few photos of her.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to help save more lives than ever in 2019. But those automated donations can take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. Mine, in particular, lean more toward the hour-and-a-half territory. What’s a girl to do? Watch Netflix movies and donate. And because I’m so thankful for your willingness to help us save lives, here are my top five recommendations for January.

One of the best parts of the Holiday Hugs tradition is reading the notes our donors write for patients in the hospital over the holidays. It’s not an easy task as each patient has his or her own individual circumstance, so we’re restricted in which cards we tie to each bear. Still, many of our donors are well up to the task.

I learned something the other day. Every day, someone’s life is being saved. I know that seems obvious, but let that sink in. What may be a normal Thursday for most could be something completely different for someone else. And that’s exactly what happened to donor Gary Gilson. Aug. 16 was one of the most important moments in Gary’s life. Not only did he save lives that day, but someone else saved the life of his loved one, as well.

A 3-year-old girl lies in a hospital bed in the middle of the room with monitors attached to her bare chest. She’s awake, but she doesn’t lift her head as we walk into the room. Still, she follows us with her eyes. The only sound we hear from her is a small cough while a nurse comes in to check her stats.

Blood transfusion is one treatment used to combat complications from sickle cell disease, a form of anemia most likely to affect people of African descent. Prince and her now 27-year-old daughter, Quannecia McCruse, founded the Sickle Cell Association of Houston years ago to educate and provide resources to the community.

Penny, a local teacher with some free time over the summer, has helped us kick off our new Volunteer Driver program. Are you interested in joining us in our mission to save lives? Call us at (713) 791-6262 or email volunteering@giveblood.org.

I’m a scaredy-cat. I readily admit it. I hate needles. That’s always been my excuse for why I don’t volunteer for anything with a needle. Flu shot? No way. Vaccines? I still remember the sheer terror I felt from them growing up.

CYPRESS – There is nothing more American than baseball and saving lives. Everyone who participates in The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center’s Home Run for Life competition will get a chance at both through June 30.

Here at The Blood Center, we pride ourselves on being an organization of diversity. We work together to save and sustain lives, and we each bring a unique perspective when it comes to fulfilling our mission.

Hurricane Harvey destroyed homes, cars and many other things, but one thing it couldn’t destroy is the compassion for others in newlywed couple Gilbert and Stefanie Cruz. Gilbert and Stefanie were set to get married just a few days after Harvey passed, but due the storm’s aftermath they had to alter all of their plans on a moment’s notice.

Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center has partnered with two local agencies providing emergency medical services to help save more lives when time is of the essence, now administering whole blood to patients on the ground.

The Lone Star Circle of Life bike tour visits Texas cities to raise awareness of the need for blood, marrow, organ and tissue donations to honor those impacted by these donation types. This year’s eight-day, 600-mile tour included stops in Houston and College Station.